Lauren A. Smith, MD, MPH


Lauren Smith, MD, MPH, is the chief health equity and strategy officer for the CDC Foundation and a member of the executive team. In this role, Smith brings more than 25 years working at the intersection of health care delivery and management, public policy and public health fields.

As chief health equity and strategy officer, Smith partners with the CDC Foundation’s other senior leaders to develop and drive strategic efforts to embed health equity across the full range of the Foundation’s activities with an explicit focus on addressing systemic racism and other structural inequities and their impact on vulnerable populations’ health, wellbeing and resiliency. In addition, she leads activities to build organizational capacity to integrate health equity into the Foundation’s practice, process, action, innovation and organizational performance to elevate the importance of and deepen the Foundation’s health equity impact. Smith also serves as a principal advisor to the board of directors, the CEO and the executive team on the Foundation’s overall strategic opportunities, risks and tradeoffs related to health equity strategy and implementation. Full Bio (PDF)